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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23139628">Soda strawing</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Congar/pseuds/Congar'>Congar</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Deltarune (Video Game), Undertale (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 09:01:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,158</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23139628</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Congar/pseuds/Congar</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Monster Prince sits down for a soda with the quiet human from a few school years under him that he's mentoring as the school's burning through the diner window of Burgerpants' Diner.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Soda strawing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“How many times have you seen the school cafeteria burn down at this point? Including today, of course.”</p>
<p>There is an answer.</p>
<p>Not a particularly informative one.</p>
<p>Or something that would further the conversation, be it forwards or backwards.</p>
<p>However, it is an answer.</p>
<p>And Asriel’s a bit taken back that he got one, to be honest.</p>
<p>The shrug from the striped-sweater-wearing human teenager opposite the rather cramped diner booth inside Burgerpants’ Burgers could easily be mistaken for one that’s heaved in tiredness. It’s uncaring, almost apathetic.</p>
<p>But it still a step up from not giving one at all. Not something that would risk tripping anyone though.</p>
<p>Asriel adjusts himself on the leathery seat, letting his weight shift down on the backrest until the bottom of his shoulder blades hook onto the weathered top. He scrapes down a cracked piece of red leather as he lifts his arm to rest on the length of the backrest curving just before it touches the window facing the somewhat smoky exterior. “Five? Six?”</p>
<p>Another shrug.</p>
<p>With an amused chuckle Asriel turns his head to the sounding serenity of sirens casting alternate blue and red streaks across the width of the street supporting the weight of strewn-about onlookers. It’s easy to spot which monsters are locals and which are visiting. If they only look and keep walking they’re locals and used to this. If they stay and take photos and even swap concerned words then they’re from out of town. Some even glance back at the diner towards the various monsters enjoying lunch without as much as a blink as the alternating blue and red swipes at their eyes. The stares then stop briefly at the human sitting opposite the Monster Prince dressed in an opened shirt that shows off the excited face of Undyne advertising her soon-to-be-opened gym. The onlookers do not see below the prince’s waist, but they all assume that there exists pants below. </p>
<p>The stares don’t seem to bother Kris though, which is a surprise to Asriel. True, he did bring Kris here to get a reaction from being out in public, but the reaction is much more subtle than he planned for. Kris only stares into their soda glass which liquid changes from black, to red, to blue, and then back to black. The few cubes of ice in it have barely moved since Asriel put it down in front of them, although why would they need to now that Kris has put a straw into it which they drink from as if it’s bitter medicine. The paper sleeve lies crumbled next to the condense-covered cup with distorted faces of Mettaton winking between the folds.</p>
<p>“Double digits for me,” Asriel informs as he lifts his own glass of shimmering and hue-changing cola to his white lips. He sips a bit more to get the last lingering smoke taste off his tongue, and the cola is happy to fizzle it away and tickle gently as it does. With the moisture from the outside of the glass he also rubs away a gray spot on his horn which he catches in his faint reflection of the diner’s window. Guess he missed it after he’d cleaned himself off in the bathroom. The mirrors there haven’t been changed since Burgerpants bought the diner from the previous human owner, so he couldn’t really see the top of his long horns there. With the panoramic view presenting smoke, smolder, and strange looks he finally caught it. Fifty fifty chance that it was just the dark-gray smoke coloring his horn, but the wet ash on his finger that he dries off on a napkin from the provided dispenser on the table tells that he chose wisely.</p>
<p>“It wasn’t until, I think… the fourth or fifth time?” Asriel polishes his horns with the rest of the clean area of the napkin as he blows a thinking raspberry through his lips. “I don’t know which number exactly, but they decided that we’d get vouchers after a Moldsmal slipped past back inside to fetch her sandwich while the place was still in a blaze.” The ice in Asriel’s glass dance around as he places it back down on the table with a haphazard shrug not unlike the ones Kris sent over his way. “I’m surprised they still get insurance payouts after it’s happened so many times, but I’m not complaining. Guess it’s the same company that keeps paying out for Mettaton’s shows.”</p>
<p>Asriel relays over a laid-back scoff to Kris, but they only look out the window at a passing firetruck staffed with fire monsters. Again the reaction is subtle, just the tiniest raising of Kris’ brow. “Fight fire with fire,” says Asriel as he follows the human kid’s look. He takes the opportunity to angle his head and horns in the window’s reflection to gauge if there’s another spot he missed. There isn’t, luckily, but his tuft is hanging quite heavy still. Hasn’t dried and fluffed itself up quite yet. </p>
<p>What a shame.</p>
<p>And speaking of that.</p>
<p>Drying, that is.</p>
<p>“How’s the sweater?” Asriel asks while gesturing friendly and dragging a threatless smile. “Not itching or anything? Mom...eh...Toriel had me wash it a couple of times to get the last strands of fur out of it. If you want it you can keep it. I was planning on giving it away to that school fund-raising thing so I’ve already given up ownership of it, so if you want it then I can just wash another one. I got plenty that are too small for me, so don’t worry. If anything it’s for my own sake that I get rid of them so that I don’t have to hear how much I’ve grown each and every time mo- Toriel finds them.” He drinks some more to keep himself from blabbering on too much. “It looks-” Asriel finishes too hastily and direct after swallowing which forces him to ball a fist over his mouth to quell a burp. “It looks good on you.”</p>
<p>Kris plucks at their sweater’s collar with the tip of their thumb. From underneath their long, hanging fringe they inspect it, but if it’s curiously or just courtesy, Asriel can’t tell from the other side of the brown veil. After a couple of red and blue seconds, Kris shifts their fringe along with their head back to face Asriel, and nod quietly.</p>
<p>Quietly in voice.</p>
<p>Yet still screaming their intent.</p>
<p>Asriel folds his arms over his chest, cocking his head to the side as he does. He takes a big inhale through his long, white nose, and lets his head hang down as he breathes out. With a couple of watery blinks his head shakes on its own.</p>
<p>“You look just like me.”</p>
<p>The collar snaps back onto Kris’ neck as it slides off their thumb suspended in shock.</p>
<p>“You don’t think you belong here, do you?” Asriel states despite forming it as a question, mimicking what he was asked so many times when he could naught but shrug at the questions given to him, or even muster a thanks to a gift given to him. “Don’t think the sun should be shining on you because it feels wrong for others to have to see you? You shouldn’t be here, so why this spotlight that you can’t escape?”</p>
<p>Since he didn’t feel he deserved it.</p>
<p>“Thing is though,” he continues while scratching the scruff beginning to take its beardy roots on his cheek. “And the problem with it at the same time, is that everyone else thinks that you do belong here. That’s not to say that they’re right, even if they are, but it is that they want you to feel like it’s right to you to boot. To them you’re like them, so feeling like you don’t belong is wrong.”</p>
<p>The heavy lean down of Kris’ head informs Asriel that he should give them a couple of seconds. He patiently waits until the straw turns transparent again before he continues.</p>
<p>“I don’t mean that as something negative, and neither do they, but they way they’re saying it makes it negative to you. Because to you, you do not belong, and it is because something is wrong. To them, you belong, but to you, you don’t. It’s not wrong what they’re saying, but to your ears it’s not right.” The long ear flops down on the scruffy cheek as Asriel reaches over for another sip of his soda.</p>
<p>Kris hunkers backwards, almost melding together with the crackling red leather of the worn backrest if they could.</p>
<p>Pleased, although with a hint of reservation, Asriel allows himself a smile. “That is what I thought.” And judging by Kris’ reaction they are thinking it now. Asriel keeps his hand on the glass as he puts it down, drumming on it as he feels the realization hitch a ride on the fresh flow spreading throughout him from his soda. He turns his head out with it tugging his lips back into a neutral smirk. Happy that he’s managed to read Kris this well, but defeated because of what made him figure out what page to turn to.</p>
<p>Because the two are on the same page.</p>
<p>However, Asriel’s flipping back to it while Kris is on it currently. This chapter he’s gone through before, so maybe he can help Kris move past it quicker? </p>
<p>And if not, at least prepare them for what’s to come.</p>
<p>Asriel sighs into the window, creating a large opaque circle on it that hides the smoky outside with the same gray. “I had the same thoughts running through my monster head as the ones running through your human head. Different different, but same.” In the middle of the circle he draws a laid-down oval with the second knuckle on his index finger. “The same thoughts that told me that I didn’t belong even though everyone else around me told me that I did.” Smaller ovals surround the rim of the one he drew. “Because how could they say that I did belong if I didn’t even know who I was?” Two parallel and vertical stripes form in the laid-down oval simultaneously from both his index and long finger. “That was what I had to find out first.” A bent-upwards smile completes the drawing. “And that is something I can’t tell you.” Asriel stares at his old reflection flickering in the siren light. At the flowery smile he wore in his past life which he still vividly remembers. “I’m sorry.”</p>
<p>He blinks as another breathed circle forms next to his. A human finger then runs across it, forming more angular shapes rather than the circular ones Asriel drew. Kris occasionally glances up to the hesitating Boss Monster, smiling awkwardly out of obligation rather than joy. Kris then continues with their drawing, omitting the awkwardness in their rendering. On the top of the scoured condensation they add two horns as a final flair, and sit back down while gripping their soda with both hands and looking down into it.</p>
<p>Asriel stares at his current reflection flickering in the siren light now that the circle’s begun to fade to reveal who he is now. “And here I tried to have you cheered up...” He scoffs a chuckle and wipes off the rest of his old reflection with the back of his hand, leaving a couple of white strands stuck in the clinging moisture. “This is nice,” he says as he again leans back with his soda in his hand. “I think we should do this again, Kris.” With a smile turned genuine and confident he reaches over his soda towards Kris.</p>
<p>They put a straw into it without looking up from their own soda.</p>
<p>“Alright, fair enough.”</p>
<p>Asriel rolls his tongue around the top of the straw as he brings his soda back to him with a light chuckle that blows a couple of bubbles into the cola.</p>
<p>“If I get us some fries next time will you promise to try and open up a bit more?”</p>
<p>Another shrug.</p>
<p>“Although next time try to at least be subtle about sneaking into the kitchen with your little gang, okay?”</p>
<p>The green and yellow on the sweater turns a deep brown as a cascade of cola explodes from the human child’s glass summoned forth by a panicked gasp shot through the swirled pattern of the straw. Kris flinches back, but is only bounced forwards again by the cracked cushion behind them into the cascading soda-fall spilling over the lip of the already-stained diner table. Horrified they stare down at their soaked sweater with fear gripping their neck hard enough to not allow them to look up and face Asriel. </p>
<p>With a gentle motion Asriel lifts up his given straw stuck on the tip of his tongue and spits it out into the nearby trash can.</p>
<p>“And this is why I prefer my soda without any straws.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Been a while since I posted something so I thought I'd just do a quick little something to have a reason to give a status update on my next project.</p>
<p>Currently I am at the beginning of the end of the second of three arcs at around 200 000 words. I am very much still writing and excited to release it when it is ready. This current project will not only consist of writing though, however more I do not want to go into detail right now here. What I can say though is that it is something no one else has done in this fandom, perhaps not even in other fandoms too. Preliminary release date will be at the beginning of next year depending of how much time the writing will take. If you don't want to wait that long then I am still active on the Fanfic Paradise Discord server which link you can find at the end of my other completed projects.</p>
<p>If you're a new reader, feel free to poke around at those new projects should you want.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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